Featuring Reviews of Triangle Area Restaurants, and Food and Drink Recommendations!

Azitra in Brier Creek, Raleigh

I went to Azitra for the first time last Saturday evening. It’s an Indian restaurant in Brier Creek next to Fujisan. The restaurant is at the end of a strip mall block, so the side is open for seating. The seating area looked really nice, but unfortunately it’s been in the high 90’s all week so everyone wants to sit inside in the air conditioning.

The interior was cool and dark, perfect for a hot evening. The decor was very nice, my son loved the lighting. We got a rounded booth which was great because the 3 of us could all sit together.

We started with some paneer pakora and assorted naan for appetizers. The naan also came with some raita which I used once the entrees came out. The paneer pakora was decent, but I think the sauce was the best part of this dish. The naan was good too, but I think in the future we’ll just get the garlic naan. The other 2 weren’t as good. We also each got a mango lassi. The mango lassis here are very yogurty in flavor, not very sweet, which I think is good when going with the meal. I don’t like mango lassis that taste like fruit smoothies loaded up with sugar.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I ordered the chicken tikka masala. I usually prefer paneer, but they didn’t offer that as a choice with masala sauce. The chicken was good anyhow. I had read other reviews indicating the dishes here were disappointingly bland, so I had ordered mine “spicy”. Well, I wasn’t disappointed. I drank all my lassi and needed all the raita to keep from burning up, it was great. I also had more than enough leftovers for my next 2 meals.

My husband got the lamb vindaloo, his favorite dish, also “spicy”. He was pretty impressed by how much it made him sweat. He said it had a good flavor and the meat was good quality, but maybe next time he wouldn’t get it quite so spicy.

Lamb Vindaloo

Overall I thought the food here was pretty good. The service was excellent, I don’t think our water glasses were even allowed to get halfway empty before they were filled back up again. But since it was a bit pricier than other Indian restaurants in the area, I’m not sure if we’ll be coming back too much. The cost was $17 for each of the entrees, $9 for the 3 mango lassis, $9 for the naan and $7 for the paneer pakora. It does have the convenience factor of being right off 540 near RTP and the airport, but if you’ve ever tried getting in and out of Brier Creek during rush hour, you know it’s not so convenient all the time.